Updated at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025.
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Read all our coverage on the Evergreen High School shooting here.
As the Evergreen community continues to recover following the shooting on Wednesday, Sept. 10 at the high school, authorities are sharing more information.
On Thursday, Sept. 11, they said they now believe many more people could have been hurt if not for some of the safety measures the school had in place, such as locked doors and the quick actions of staff and students. Additional information released Tuesday, Sept. 16 give insight into the timeline of events.
Here’s what we know so far:
What happened:
The shooter, a 16-year-old student at the high school, took a revolver and lots of ammunition to school.
The student waited until around lunchtime to start shooting. He reloaded his handgun multiple times as he made his way throughout the school looking for “targets,” said Jacki Kelley, a spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office.
“He would fire and reload, fire and reload, fire and reload,” Kelley said. “This went on and on, and as he did that, he tried to find new targets, and he came up against a roadblock on many of those doors. He couldn't get to those kids.”
Sheriff officials said the shooter fired 20 rounds in about nine minutes.
After calls started flooding the 911 dispatch center, deputies were dispatched at 12:24 p.m. and arrived on campus within 2.5 minutes, according to the sheriff’s office. The shooting had started inside the school, where the 16-year-old used a revolver to shoot a student, as well as windows and lockers. He was unable to reach more students behind locked doors.
Then the gunman stepped out of the school building and crossed the football field, striking a second student outside at the corner of Olive Street and Buffalo Park Road. Deputies confronted the shooter, who then took his own life.
Kelley said there is body camera footage of the incident, as well as security footage from inside the school that captures the suspect’s movements throughout the incident. None of that has been released at this time.
The sheriff’s office still has not answered questions about how the teenager got the gun he used, or about his motive.
The two students who were shot are still hospitalized and their conditions have not changed. One is in critical condition and another is in serious condition, according to hospital spokespersons.
The victims:
We know that the two shooting victims are both also students at the high school, but only one has been identified.
One of them was shot inside, and another was shot outside of the school building.
One student remains in critical condition at CommonSpirit St. Anthony's Hospital in Lakewood, and the second student was in stable condition Wednesday night and was transferred to another hospital.
The Jeffco Sheriff’s Office identified one of the students who was shot as 18-year-old Matthew Silverstone. His family released a statement through the sheriff’s office.
An eyewitness to that second shooting said he saw two boys fighting near Buffalo Park Road and South Olive Road behind the school. During that altercation he saw the shooter throw the victim "against the street and fired a shot," Delmar Martinez said in Spanish to the Denver Post.
In the videos recorded by Martinez, law enforcement officers were seen performing CPR on what the outlet has reported is Silverstone.
“The family appreciates the community’s concern and support, but as we remain focused on our loved one’s recovery, we respectfully request privacy as we continue to heal and navigate this road ahead.”
The suspect:
On Thursday, Sept. 11, the suspect was identified as 16-year-old Desmond Holly.
Kelley said that investigators have been in contact with Holly’s parents, who are being cooperative.
Investigators searched the home, and while Kelley couldn’t speak to exactly what was found, she said that they have learned that Holly appears to have been radicalized by some kind of extremist group. She did not elaborate and said that a motive is still unclear.
The motive:
The Anti-Defamation League later told CPR News it flagged an online user account now linked to the shooter to the FBI in July.
“He had been sharing symbols and code words that extremists use, referencing past school shooters and even beginning to amass tactical gear,” said Oren Segal, senior vice president of Counter-Extremism and Intelligence for the ADL. “It appeared that the person making those posts was developing a deep fascination with mass shooters. This is somebody who was expressing neo-Nazi views and that was active on a violent gore site that we know at least two previous school shooters were active on before him.”
On Monday, Sept. 14, the FBI confirmed that it had been investigating the identity of an online user who had been discussing plans for a mass shooting, and said that part of their investigation stopped on Sept. 10, the day of the Evergreen High School shooting.
The gun:
Kelley said that Holly had a revolver of unknown caliber and “quite a bit” of ammunition.
Sheriff officials said the shooter fired 20 rounds in about nine minutes.
In addition to shooting at two fellow students who were hospitalized, Kelley also described the scene inside the school with lockers and windows shot out.
Investigators are still working to figure out how Holly got access to the weapon, Kelley said, or how he concealed it on his bus ride to school and for that morning before he began the shooting.
The investigation:
Investigators still have a lot to look into in the following weeks, including multiple crime scenes.
“The reason we have so many crime scene areas inside is because we have windows shot out. We have lockers that were shot up, we're finding spent rounds, unspent rounds, so it's a huge area and the school, I was told, is three levels, so lots of work to be done,” Kelley said.
With assistance from the FBI and multiple local law enforcement agencies, Kelley said they are working to continue to process multiple crime scenes within and outside of the school.
They are looking to answer the questions about:
- How did the suspect get the gun?
- Can they identify a motive?
“There's obviously a lot of work that has to go into looking at his phone, looking at his social media pages, searching his room, searching his backpack,” Kelley said. “...searching his locker. There's a lot of places to look that we hope will just give us better information as to what he was attempting to do and maybe the why. Sometimes we never find out why.”
What's going on in Evergreen:
In addition to the investigation, the Sheriff’s office is working to release vehicles from at least one of the school parking lots.
For students or staff who have their keys for their vehicle, they can go to the Bergen Meadows Elementary building, 1928 S. Hiwan Dr., Evergreen where someone can retrieve the vehicle.
It’s still unclear when classes might be able to resume. The school district is sending surveys to students this week as leaders craft a plan to reopen the high school. It plans to announce a plan to families by Sunday, Sept. 21 and wants to hear from every student before that.
Officials say that a full-time school resource officer will be assigned to the school when it reopens.
About the school:
Evergreen High School, like other Jeffco schools, has experienced some declining enrollment, but most recently enrolled about 900 students, according to the Colorado Department of Education.
The school sits in the foothills among pine trees.
The school currently does not have a full-time School Resource Officer because the assigned officer was on “medical leave,” Kelley said, so there was a school resource officer that was assigned to multiple schools, including Evergreen High. He had been at the school Wednesday morning, but at the time of the shooting had left campus to help with an unrelated call nearby at the time of the shooting.
Because it was lunch time, some students ran away from the school seeking shelter in nearby homes or the library.
“That to me sounds like Evergreen," Kelley said. “Evergreen is still a smaller community. They're a tight community, man. They're going to take care of their kids; if they're home, they're taking them in.”
Since the shooting, parents have told CPR News there have been growing concerns surrounding the lack of an assigned SRO at Evergreen Middle and High School that were brought up both months and just hours before the shooting. The most recent conversation about the lack of an SRO took place at Evergreen Middle School the morning of the Evergreen High School shooting.
Rumors:
Some students on social media have shared that they believe they saw more than one shooter.
Kelley said that investigators can say “with 100 percent confidence” that there was no second shooter. She said there were cameras inside the school, “which is very powerful and important for us in our investigations. We're able to track his movement throughout the school.”
Editor's note: This story has been updated with the latest information on the Evergreen High School shooting.
